


minus twenty-one degrees

by imageability (chamelenyoung)



Series: one hundred percent [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24618202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chamelenyoung/pseuds/imageability
Summary: People were usually a hit-or-miss type thing for Sehun.
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Oh Sehun
Series: one hundred percent [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783345
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	minus twenty-one degrees

"Chances of showers my foot," Sehun grumbles at his snow-caked sneakers. Fat snowflakes fall from the sky faster than rain. It's breathtaking - mostly because it's so cold Sehun is finding it increasingly hard to inhale. (His weather app says it's minus twenty-one degrees and "feels like minus eight". Lies.)

The subway gets stuck a stop before the one he regularly gets off at, and Sehun makes the mistake of deciding to rough it and walk home. Stiffly, he trudges up the hill to his shared apartment, up to the second floor, and flings the door open. "Minseok-hyung! I can't feel my toes-"

He stops dead at the stranger sitting on edge of the couch, who is most definitely not his roommate.

"Hi, I'm Kim Jongdae." the stranger stands up, hand outstretched, amiable. "Minseok-hyung's friend. He let me stay over since my train got delayed."

His introduction ends in a question, probably due to the look Sehun must have on his face, one he's too cold to rearrange into something less soulless. "Nice to meet you. Sehun, right?"

Sehun observes Jongdae as he again makes himself comfortable on the couch. White socks, skinny jeans, a rumpled university hoodie that Minseok has too. Slight, sharp-nosed, and the corners of his mouth curved in a way that probably always stops him from looking too serious.

"Where's Minseok-hyung?" He watches warily as Jongdae locates and fills their water kettle.

Jongdae doesn't hesitate to answer cheerfully, "I killed him and shoved him in the closet." He visibly cringes as the words leave his mouth.

Sehun backs up a step in mild alarm. Minseok-hyung usually made safe if over-zealous friends. He hopes Jongdae is just exhausted. He vaguely wonders if that's just his sense of humor.

"O-okay. I'm just going to sit here until I can feel my toes again." His feet look strangely red. Peeling away his wet socks, he mutters to himself, "Or until they fall off."

Sehun grumbles to himself for several more moments before Jongdae pipes up. "You could use warm water," suggests Jongdae. He eyes Sehun's frozen feet with the kind of interest Jongin used to reserve for preserved animals parts in grade school biology. You know, before he went into forensic pathology.

Sehun regards him with trepidation. "Are you one of Minseok-hyung's med school friends? I don't think -"

"I'm not," interrupts Jongdae. "I just used to be."

"Oh. Okay." Sehun is unnecessarily assuaged. He leans back in resignation. "Bring it on then."

They tread to the bathroom to find a washing bowl and Sehun braces himself for the unthawing process. "I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing, though," offers Jongdae helpfully as he fills the bowl halfway from the tap.

If warm water was a good idea, ten minutes later, only Jongdae thinks so. "MOTHER OF -" whines Sehun, a creative stream of expletives followed by something probably equally polite in accented Mandarin he picked up from Tao.

"If feeling is returning, that's a good sign." Jongdae ignores Sehun but keeps their eyes level to each other. "Relax, it's lukewarm water." He also reminds Sehun that the hospital Minseok works at is only a ten minute walk away, a bit of information that doesn't have the comforting effect he'd probably intended.

Half an hour passes, Jongdae chattering on incessantly, and Sehun's skin color and temperature returns to normal. As Jongdae pours the water down the drain, Sehun dries his feet. "Thanks, I guess," Sehun mumbles. He's been inhaling Jongdae's cologne for the past half hour, but can't bring himself to ask Jongdae where he bought it from.

"No problem." Jongdae brightens. His stomach growls on his last word. He laughs. "You hungry? I wonder what Minseok-hyung has to eat." Jongdae's only known Sehun for less than an hour, but has already made the correct conclusion - only Minseok cooks. They shamelessly dig through the kitchen for ramen, miraculously burn the first pot, and devour the second. Minseok returns home in horror amidst all this, Jongdae cackling and Sehun's eyes twinkling.

"I don't remember releasing _you_ from kitchen probation, and what did _you_ do to my stony faced dongsaeng?" Minseok points an accusatory finger at each of them in turn. He leaves for his second shift without crossing the threshold of the front door. "This better be cleaned up when I come back," he warns.

"Sorry, hyung," Jongdae manages to pull out a contrite expression and latches onto the elder's hand. Sehun notes that his aegyo might be better than Baekhyun's.

"Just don't miss your train," Minseok calls out behind him.

Hands wrapped around cooling mugs of hot chocolate, they wait for Jongdae's train to slowly chug in. Jongdae asks Sehun all sorts of questions, gradually turning sentence-long exchanges into conversations. They end up talking about everything from Sehun's lamentable dye job - "Shut up, you wish you could pull this off" - to Jongdae's trial and disillusionment in medical school.

When Jongdae's phone notifies him that the trains are running again, it's late in the evening, lights melting onto streets cleared of snow. As Jongdae pulls Sehun in for a parting hug, Sehun feels like he should say something. "It was nice meeting you," Sehun mumbles, suddenly awkward, a twinge of disappointment in his chest.

Jongdae flashes him a grin, a confident one where the corners of his eyes fill with sunshine, and he waves goodbye as the door clicks shut behind him.

It takes five whole minutes of Sehun frowning at said door before he tears after him, dragging on the closest outerwear he can grab (he'll shoulder the consequences later if it's not his), not bothering to lock the door on his way out.

Jongdae regards Sehun in amusement as he doubles over, trying to catch his breath after sprinting halfway to the station, but he almost doesn't seem surprised. "I - you - I mean - it's cold. Can I get your number?"

As he waves to Jongdae from side of the platform, Sehun watches him lug his suitcase onboard, his mind still running with questions. How did he worm his way past Sehun's reticence so quickly? Why he wasn't turned off by Sehun's default expression that he's been told more than once is unapproachable? When would he be able to see him again?

As Sehun makes the trudge back up to the apartment, he thinks about Jongdae's number on his phone in his pocket, and he thinks that Gyeonggi-do isn't that far from Seoul.

Just as he's about to toe off his (again, sopping) trainers, he recalls the unchecked text messages on his phone, that he ignored on his way home because he was too cold to pulls his hands out of (Minseok's) coat pockets.

_You owe me for your toes! Just kidding, we should meet again <3_

Sehun's heart warms and almost flutters, maybe, or just a little. And he know he's lost it when he catches himself thinking that the fallen snow looks beautiful from this point of view.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry, this isn't very seasonally appropriate for some of us (we can all dream of cooler weather together)


End file.
